Porsche tops Forbes' quality list

NEW YORK, April 11 (UPI) -- U.S. consumers believe luxury and quality go hand-in-hand and rate Porsche as the highest-quality automobile, Forbes magazine reported Monday.

Forbes averaged out scores of two J.D. Power's surveys -- one that rated consumer satisfaction on 2010 model cars after 90 days of ownership and one that rates the same after three years of ownership. They also factored in scores on quality from a survey done by automobile industry research firm ALG.

Porsche topped the list with an average score of 590.2, followed by Lexus with an average score of 585.3. BMW, Jaguar and Mercedes came in third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

"The perception of the quality of the mainstream is certainly a cut below the luxury brands," Eric Lyman, the director of residual values for the automotive analysis firm ALG, told Forbes.

"People expect that a luxury good has higher quality -- that's why it's considered a luxury good," Lyman said.

The top eight also included, in order of preference, Acura, Audi and Volkswagen.